Faces of Blue: Dee Henschel
My name is Dee. Although I never had colorectal cancer, I was diagnosed with Familial Adenomatous Polyposis (FAP) when I was 22 years old. I had a total colectomy IRA surgery when I was 23 as my colon was carpeted with polyps. I accepted my diagnosis and went with the flow of getting my scopes (Both gastro and sig. scopes) every 6 months. It was just an adjustment I had to make with watching what foods I ate.
Ten years later I found out both my kids (my son age 3 1/2 and my daughter age 1 1/2 at the time) tested positive for having FAP. It was then that I started doing research on FAP. What an eye opener that was. My kids went for blood tests and ultrasounds alternating every 6 months till they hit 7 years old. Next year my son will be 11 and will need to start going for a colonoscopy once a year, followed by my daughter 2 years later. They will keep an eye on their colons for polyps until they need surgery to remove their colons. They are my main reason I would LOVE to start a foundation/organization to raise money for research to help my kids and others with FAP.
I am in the very beginning stages and just finding my way as to what to do. For now I am looking into helping raise money for colon cancer with the help of “piggy backing” FAP awareness at the same time. I use Facebook to share everything possible from your page and many other colon cancer pages. I know in my family colon cancer is very high unless our colons removed, but since colon cancer is preventable, treatable and beatable if caught early enough, if it can save someone’s life or quality of life I am happy to have re-posted something that can help them.
5 comments on this post
Leave a Comment
Comment Policy
We encourage interaction, discussion, commentary, questions and even criticism but respectfully ask that comments and posts are kept relevant and respectful. Personal attacks, inappropriate language, racism, spamming and excessive posting/commenting will not be tolerated. The Colon Cancer Coalition / Get Your Rear in Gear reserves the right to remove any comment or ban any user for any reason. We reserve the right to move discussions offline and to delete excessive comments to improve the overall visitor experience.
Get Your Rear in Gear reserves the right to remove comments advertising commercial products, comments that are inaccurate, or may be otherwise objectionable.
We will not post form letters with the same content from multiple users.
Relevant comments on previously published posts are always welcome.
Wow! That is a whole lot to deal with! You guys have been through some pretty major stuff! Good job on all the work you’ve done and you guys are on my prayer list!
Thanks so much Angela, your prayers mean a lot and a are greatly appreciated. <3
Here you go, Dee – this is the establishment I was thinking about as a potential source of research funding to learn more about FAP so the next generation can have much less drastic treatment – or even effective, non-invasive disease management options available to them: http://www.hhmi.org Check it out. ~~ Frank ~~
Thank-You SO much Frank, I greatly appreciate your help and time!!
Hello there, please contact me Dee. We are both on the same mission. I want to determine how we can fix the real problem which is making the APC gene no longer mutate. Let’s collectively do what we can. As we know our strength is in numbers. More people with a shared vision can make positive change. There must be a way around needing a surgery. Let’s all get connected!